Streets of Rage 4 coming to Microsoft Game Pass on day one

While Streets of Rage 4 was already teased as a Game Pass game, it wasn’t confirmed or really talked about after the announcement. Was the game going to be timed exclusive? Would it be on sale first then come to Xbox Game Pass? Now the Facebook page has confirmed that it will be available to Game Pass consumers the same day as it goes on sale digitally.

The issue? Its coming soon, without a solid release date. I guess now we wait.

[Thanks for the heads up Brandon!]

Panzer Dragoon: Remake Review – A Wing in the Right Direction (Nintendo Switch)

Review code provided by Forever Entertainment.

Remakes are a common sight in the modern age. I won’t spiel too long about their worth, or their reason for being, but I will put a fine point on one aspect of their existence: what they bring to the original game. A remake can do a lot of things, both good and bad, and the discussion for how faithful a remake should be is a relevant one in the face of games that barely do more than make new art and graphical assets being the most successful remakes on the market. A good remake, in my opinion, is one that injects life into an old idea while keeping sight of what made the idea special in the first place. Or, at the very least, doing something so radically different with the original idea it becomes special in its own right.

Enter Panzer Dragoon: Remake. The original was a seminal 1995 release that ushered the SEGA Saturn into American and European homes with aplomb, and delighted Japanese Saturn owners a year into its life. It was a simple game of arcade sensibility with RPG detail. It was a 3D tour-de-force when polygons were a rarity at home. An on-rails action shooter with a three hundred and sixty degree innovation and a world like nothing else at the time. It’s a prime candidate for a remake, old and unique enough that it could stand improvements without becoming part of the crowd. Does the remake we have now succeed, though? Well…

Panzer Dragoon Limited Run Games pre-orders go live tomorrow, ‘Classic Edition’ includes SEGA Saturn tall case

The brand new, Panzer Dragoon remake will get a physical version thanks to Limited Run Games which will have two versions, one being a regular version for $39.99 and the ‘Classic Edition’ which comes with a SEGA Saturn replica case for $59.99. While its cool to get these physical editions, its a bit sad that the ‘Classic Edition’ isn’t coming with more goodies outside of a replica case. Maybe Limited Run Games has spoiled me in the past but no artwork? Poster? Art Book?

According to Limited Run Games, both the regular and Classic Edition will be open pre-orders until April 24th, meaning you don’t have to prey that you can get a copy and gives you time to free up cash to order.

Catherine Full Body coming to Nintendo Switch on July 7th

Catherine, the cult puzzle game by Atlus, is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch in July 7th. Notably this is the “Full Body” re-release that includes extra content, such as a third love interest in Rin and 5 more endings possible.

Like before, you take on the role of Vincent Brooks, as he gets involved in an affair with Catherine, with the encounter causing Vincent to experience warped nightmares every night. These nightmares play out like a sliding box puzzle, where the objective is to climb to the top of a tower and escape, and doing it fast enough to avoid getting swallowed by the nightmare below.

 

Panzer Dragoon Remake now available on the Nintendo Switch

A bit of an unexpected drop! As revealed in Nintendo’s latest Nintendo Direct Mini, Panzer Dragoon Remake is now available for the Nintendo Switch. The game is available in all regions for $24.99 and equivalent, so far only digitally on the Nintendo Switch eShop. A Steam release is also planned, but it’s still unknown when Panzer Dragoon Remake will release on Steam and possibly other system.

The game itself is a recreation of the original 1995 SEGA Saturn cult classic, as you take on the role of a rider flying an armored dragon through flooded temples and barren deserts. Your objective is to survive and defeat the evil Prototype Dragon and other monsters by using a combination of the rider’s gun and the dragon’s homing laser breath, similar to SEGA’s past arcade games like After Burner.

SEGA AGES G-LOC Air Battle releasing on March 26th in Japan


Take to skies with the newest release in the SEGA AGES series, G-LOC Air Battle, which is confirmed to be released on March 26th in Japan for ¥999. Commonly cited as a spin-off to SEGA’s After Burner, you once again take on the role of a fighter jet soaring through the skies blasting anything in your way with either a standard shot or homing missiles. The main difference is the emphasis on switching between third-person and first-person, as each perspective allows for better mobility or better precision respectively.

SEGA AGES G-LOC Air Battle will have a special border designed to emulate the R360 arcade cabinet’s dynamic movements, with the screen shifting based on your actions within the game. In addition, a new SEGA AGES mode will be included, with new missions, a larger search range, and faster lock-on cursor, making it ideal for novice players. Like past SEGA AGES releases, there will also be online rankings.

[Source: Official Website]

Streets of Rage 4 physical edition pre-orders live, soundtrack composer revealed

Streets of Rage 4 physical editions for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch are now up for pre-order at Limited Run Games. Dotemu, Lizardcube and Guard Crush Games have also revealed the main composer for the game. Olivier Derivière, who worked on soundtracks for A Plague Tale: Innocence, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Dying Light 2 and more. The soundtrack will also feature several guest musicians, with new contributions from Scattle (Hotline Miami 1 & 2), Das Mörtal (Hotline Miami 2), XL Middleton, and Groundislava. These join the already announced guest artist Yuzo Koshiro, however a bit of bad news as Hideki Naganuma has been announced to no longer be able to contribute to the soundtrack due to scheduling issues.

Still, the game looks and sounds great and we can’t wait to get our hands on a physical copy!

SEGA AGES G-LOC: Air Battle Announced for Nintendo Switch

Today out of nowhere, SEGA Japan announced it was adding G-Loc: Air Battle for Nintendo Switch’s SEGA AGES line-up. G-Loc: Air Battle is the 1990 combat flight simulator arcade game developed by SEGA-AM2 and was meant to be a spin-off of the popular After Burner series.

The game was designed by Yu Suzuki and had music by the legendary Hiro (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) and Yasuhiro Takagi. It should be a interesting port, I do know that the Mega Drive port wasn’t well received but personally I have only played the arcade version. What do you think of SEGA adding a oddity like G-Loc: Air Battle to their SEGA AGES line-up?

The History of Sega Japan R&D Part 5: The Road to 2020 is Complete

It was 2015 when I posted the four part retrospective of Sega of Japan’s game development. 2015 was the year where they announced a new initiative and went as far as to make their previous corporate divisions their own separate companies. Such as Sega Games, Sega Interactive for arcades and so on (which they are already undoing again in April). Sega Game’s new president, Haruki Satomi, promised that he would right the wrongs of the past, gain back the trust of consumers and also shareholders with their “Road to 2020” initiative. Of course this encompasses the evolution of their Japanese in-house studios, which are arguably the core of Sega.

New PlatinumGames Title ‘Project GG’ To Finish “Hero Trilogy” started by Viewtiful Joe and Wonderful 101

Oh boy it looks like a Japanese blog, Ryokutya2089, who is famous for leaking video game information early has done just that for the upcoming PlatinumGames announcement we talked about a few days ago. Thanks to Wario64’s Twitter translations we know a few facts about this game:

  • Project GG will be headed by Hideki Kamiya (who directed Bayonetta & The Wonderful 101)
  • Its the last entry in Platinum Games ‘Hero Trilogy’ which started with Viewtiful Joe and The Wonderful 101 (we forgetting VJ2?)
  • Will be a ‘big hero’ action game inspired by Ultraman
  • Will be the first self-published IP by PlatinumGames
  • Targeting all existing platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and of course PC
  • PlatinumGames still has two unannounced games and they are new titles; not ports.

Seems like a lot of new information, just surprised we haven’t actually gotten a name for the game. Project GG, well… good game? What do you guys think?

 

PlatinumGames Announcing New Game On February 26, 2020


It looks like PlatinumGames has updated their website teasing ‘four stars’.. What does this all mean? Well, according to the studio who is moving into self publishing, they have 4 projects in the works. The first project was launching the Kickstarter for the Wonderful 101 port; which would be the first star.

We also found out that PlatinumGames has a game announcement on the February 27,2020 issue of Famitsu, which will line up with the ‘second star’ announcement here on their website which teases it for ‘02.26.2020‘.

What do you think PlatinumGames will announce? I personally think this will be their first, 100% owned IP for the company and I think that’s pretty exciting.

Super Monkey Ball voice actor says ‘Something IS in the works’, to ‘stay tuned!’ regarding franchise

Fellow Super Monkey Ball voice actor @Briantokyojapan posted on his instagram that there will be a interesting Super Monkey Ball announcement, that something is in the works and to stay tuned. He also hashtagged #monkeyball and #SEGA. But the interesting thing is that he used a photo that just says “Super Monkey Ball” on it, leading me to believe that this might be a port or remake of the original game. Or maybe another ‘Super Monkey Ball Deluxe‘ with the first two, but who knows.

This is going to be interesting. Something IS in the works but I’ll miss the meeting on the 25th as I’m going overseas for a week. Stay tuned! #monkeyball#sega

It makes sense since the last released game in the franchise, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD was also a ‘remake’ of the original Wii game. They could also be creating a brand new game, since the official Super Monkey Ball twitter account ran a poll in September of last year asking fans what they want from the franchise next, in first place was a brand new game with 49.2% of the votes and in close second was a remake of the first two games with 42.1% . What do you think this Super Monkey Ball announcement will be?

Streets of Rage 4 to reveal fifth playable character next week


Streets of Rage 4‘s publisher Dotemu has teased that they will be showing off a fifth playable character for the game. According to them the new character will be revealed with a “little” surprise… maybe? They have also confirmed that Streets of Rage 4 and Windjammers 2 will be playable at PAX East Boston.

Some people would suggest it might be Eddie “Skate” Hunter, but seeing as this game already has Cherry Hunter, Eddie’s sister and Adam Hunter; how many Hunters do we need? Some say this could be the return of Max Thunder, but he isn’t little at all. Maybe a Streets of Rage 3 character like Dr. Gilbert Zan or Roo? Eh. We shall see.

Who do you think the fifth playable character for Streets of Rage 4 will be?

Catherine: Full Body rated for Nintendo Switch in South Korea


If you have been waiting for more Atlus goodness on the Nintendo Switch, we might be getting Catherine: Full Body since it was rated by the Game Rating and Administration Committee in South Korea. This is pretty big considering that SEGA and Atlus released ‘Catherine: Classic‘ on PC, while the updated Catherine: Full Body was only on PlayStation 4. It seems it won’t be exclusive for long.

According to the listing it was submitted on January 16, 2020 and finalized on January 22, 2020. Unsurprising the game got a 18+ there. It will be interesting to see if Atlus adds new content to this version of Catherine: Full Body, but we shall see.

This also fits with a survey that Atlus ran for Japan where they asked fans if wanted Catherine: Full Body on Nintendo Switch.

[Source: Siliconera]

Streets of Rage 4 to be offline co-op, will keep online co-op ‘in mind’

If you are planning on buying Streets of Rage 4 to play the game online with your old buddies that have moved around the world, you might want to hold that excitement because a user on the Steam forums have asked the developer behind the game if they will feature online co-op and this is what he had to say:

“Going to be local co-op actually but we’ll keep the online coop idea in mind.”

Not really much to discuss but you’d think having online co-op in 2020 would be a no brainier. I do know that Steam now has a feature called ‘Remote Play’ that allows users to play multiplayer offline games, online with the feature. I don’t think PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch has these, so it seems this could be a negative for the game. Personally I play most of my games offline, but what do you think?